This is the second article by travelling journalist Gergij Zotov, in the series about refugee crisis in Europe, published in the newspaper weekly “Arguments and Facts” number 40 9/30/2015. English translation of the first part, about Hungary, can be read here.

Apocalypse of Europe
Special report from the flooded by refugees Austria

“AiF” observer managed to find out: 2 months ago recruits arrived to the Turkish camps for ‘displaced persons’, organizing sending of Syrians and Iraqis into the EU. One question remains: who benefits from this?

There’s a complete pandemonium in Vienna’s Westbahnhof station, to which come the packed train from Budapest. Thousands of people are crowding on the platforms, cordoned off by the police – since early morning they are waiting to be sent to Munich. Austria is struggling to get rid of the refugees, including those that are asking for political asylum. However, you can no longer recognise the hungry and exhausted people, whom I saw at the border of Hungary and Serbia. All are smiling, happy to pose for photos, dressed in brand new clothes, many – with smartphones. Before they would grab any food, now they’d come to a food stall, browse through the products, and depart. Refugees learnt in such a short: one does not need to work in Europe . The food here is laid out for free, and you are even begged to take it.

Hangover of a dragon

– Actually, there is a way out, – assures the Austrian Freedom Party activist Christian Lander. – The war in Iraq was unleashed by the US and Britain, they are the very same, who with the help of France and Italy bombed Libya, financed the rebels in Syria. It will be fair if the countries involved in the Arab adventures would share the refugees among themselves. We in Austria already have a lot of problems with migrants, and now every day there come 20,000 more people. I do not understand the silence of the European Union, when America declares, that they will generously host ten thousand Syrians… If you are an “adult” state, and not a clown in short pants, then you are obliged to bear the consequences of your policies. Otherwise it will be as in the joke about the five-headed dragon – one head was drinking schnapps in the evening, and in the morning all heads had hangover together. It would have been appropriate to immediately put the refugees into the buses at the border and “export” them to the EU countries, which created chaos in the Middle East.

Spreading the gifted blankets, people lay down to rest on the pavement. Munich slows down with a reply today: the refugee centres there are already over-crowded, they just do not know what to do. “We were promised that we’d be in Germany today, – complains Khamis, a 44-year-old engineer from Damascus. – But now it turns out that the Germans were not prepared to accept more people. What to do? We sit on each other’s heads.” Meanwhile, in the course of the conversation an interesting thing turns up. Khamis has lived in the camp “for displaced persons” in Turkey (Mardin province) for two years and did not think about Europe: for the smugglers took 10 000 dollars per person for transport by sea to Greece, while he had nowhere near that kind of money. So, in July there came some unidentified recruiters to their camp – they promised free shipping to Europe. One had to agree to the offer quickly and to go right away. “I think it is very necessary for someone that Europe is drowned with refugees – said Khamis. – But honestly, I do not want to go into details. I’m just happy that I’m far away from war.”

Control over oil

– Many Europeans probably wonder: The war in Libya and Syria began five years ago, and in Iraq as far back as in 2003, so why do hundreds of thousands of people poured into the EU now? – says political consultant of the Lebanese TV channel “Al-Manar” Mohammed Aswad. – Turkey kept the Syrians behind barbed wire, their passports were confiscated, they were not allowed to leave the camps. And suddenly there come recruiters, offering a free ride into Europe. Why such selflessness? Turkey, the closest US ally, suddenly opens the door, releasing a crowd of fugitives who freely enter the EU. Now the question is: Who benefits? The main dividends are received by the United States. The tide of migrants means huge costs for the weak EU economy, which will lead to a drop in the Euro, worsening crime situation in Europe. As a result, the EU has no resources to bother with the United States, and Washington will be able to smoothly carry out its plans for the control of oil sources in the Middle East in order to bring the price of oil to $10 per barrel.

Austrians themselves meet the “guests from the East” warmly enough – Westbahnhof is equipped with a children’s play area, where volunteers play with the kids, handing out food, clothing, offering hot drinks. However, it appears from the conversations: friendliness is based in part on the belief that no one will stay in Austria, that the “newcomers” will leave for Germany and Sweden, which give high social benefits. “Recently, on the highway to Vienna, they found a van full of corpses – seventy dead refugees, – tells a terrified housewife Laura Heusinger, who is handing out biscuits at the station. – Syrians and Libyans are trying to get to the West by all means. Of course, I feel the fear – a tiny Austria will not be able to feed the whole world. I feel sorry for these people, so I came to the station to help them as much as I can. But why do they ask money from me, and not from America?”

The train to Munich and did not arrive – the refugees are sleeping on the platforms side by side. Europe frankly does not know what to do with the millions of people of people, who broke into her boundaries, while the EU countries arguing until hoarseness sets in about quotas, pushing fugitives from one country to the next. The war in the Middle East is expanding, and crowds of residents from the destroyed cities fleeing to where it is safer. And it’s true: I wonder why the exodus started right now, where did the recruiters in camps in Turkey come from? Here, of course, one is reminded of the history – the US economy during the years of World War II has grown 7-fold(!), raising that country over the rubble of the ruined Europe. An example is good, although it is only a theory. But one fact remains unchanged: the conflict in the Middle East, and the current chaos with immigrants in Europe is profitable for the US. It is much more difficult to argue with this point of view…